St. Peter and Paul (Großostheim)
The parish church of Großostheim in the Aschaffenburg district , consecrated to the apostles Peter and Paul , is the dominant structure of the community's marketplace. The three-aisled basilica houses a Lamentation of Christ by Tilman Riemenschneider .
Building history
A previous building is already documented by Einhard , in whose sphere of activity the municipality of Großostheim is located (828). It is unclear whether it is identical to a basilica consecrated to Saint Martin , which is listed in the Codex Eberhardi . Nothing has been preserved from this early medieval building.
Today's church was started in 1250–70 as a fortified church with a single nave in the Romanesque-Gothic transition style. The choir and tower date from this period.
In the second half of the 15th century, the nave was extended to three aisles in the late Gothic style; a sacristy was added. At the end of the 18th century, the entire church was raised and given a baroque design.
The staircase in the entrance area is an addition from 1909/1912.
architecture
Due to the building history, the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Großostheim is stylistically heterogeneous today, both inside and out:
Exterior construction
On the western front, especially on the tower, the massive Romanesque construction with very small lancet windows and double-lancet windows with a central column and overlapping arches in the triangular gables has been preserved. The portal flanked by columns with a segmented gable bearing the coat of arms of Prince-Bishop Emmerich Joseph von Breidbach-Bürresheim of Mainz , and the pointed helmet are baroque elements.
The late Gothic can be seen in the pointed arched windows of the side aisles in the basement; originally they had tracery, which was removed in the 18th century in order to let more light into the church interior - in accordance with baroque design principles. Segment windows from this period contain the upper floors of the side aisles and the raised central nave.
The early Gothic choir is built from red sandstone blocks and has an elaborate tracery window in the basement, which was only broken into in the late Gothic period (15th century). The pointed gable has a pointed arch frieze and an early Gothic double-arched window; there is a finial on the roof. The tracery window with a three-pass and fish bladder on the attached sacristy is also late Gothic .
inner space
The style symbiosis of the exterior is also reflected inside. The interior wall elevation of the nave is three-zone: arcades ogive / early Gothic, the gallery and upper storeys are flooded with light in a baroque style. The side aisles are late Gothic, cross-ribbed in variations - and vaulted with a net with figural keystones. Late Gothic frescoes (passion scenes) were uncovered on the walls of the side aisles and in the vaults (the four evangelists with their symbols) in 1962.
The baroque vaulted ceiling with large-format frescoes by the Aschaffenburg painter Jakob Conrad Bechtold (1771) is dominant . Depicted in the west is the crucifixion of Peter upside down, in the middle an open sky with the Holy Trinity and in the east the beheading of Paul. In 1909 it was painted over by Adalbert Hock , also from Aschaffenburg.
The fresco of the Assumption of Mary above the pointed triumphal arch to the choir is by Adalbert Hock . The choir has a Gothic cross-rib vault.
Interior
Lamentation of Christ by Tilman Riemenschneider
From an art-historical point of view, the most important piece of equipment in the church is the carved sculpture group made of limewood at the east end of the north aisle, Lamentation of Christ , the origin of which was identified on the basis of a deed of foundation in the period 1509–1515. In 1956 the priest and art historian Walter Hotz attributed it to Tilman Riemenschneider for the first time after comparative stylistic analyzes.
The iconography repeats, expands and elaborates a type that appeared for the first time around 20 years earlier in the Hessenthal pilgrimage church : Mary sits in the middle and holds the body of Christ. Joseph of Arimathea stands at the head end, Nicodemus embraces the corpse's feet. Behind it stands the grieving Maria Magdalena. John the Evangelist (lost in Hessenthal) supports Mary, behind is another weeping woman. Only in Großostheim does another figure belong to the group, an unidentified man with two nails in his hand; some researchers want to see a self-portrait of Riemenschneider in it.
Some art historians of the 1970s (led by Justus Bier ) attribute all of the complaints from this time north of the Alps to the Middle Ages, in connection with a possibly greater integration into narrative passion cycles. The peculiarities of these two groups of lamentation in Hessenthal and Großostheim as well as a third, a late work in Maidbronn , they see as a type genesis of a workshop, but not as a personal work by Tilman Riemenschneider. Other researchers, however, worked out connections with Italian feelings ( Niccolò dell'Arca , Guido Mazzoni , Perugino ) and their individual designs: the figures look at the viewer from the picture, each face and each gesture of mourning is an expression of its own personality. The composition is the harbinger of the Renaissance and such an achievement is valued today by the prevailing teaching as a genesis that can only be ascribed to the master himself.
Other equipment
The church has a number of other valuable pieces of equipment from all styles:
- Late Gothic statues (second half of the 15th century) in the north aisle, depicting Saints James, Barbara, Katharina and Martin on horseback at the moment of the mantle division with the beggar, come from a no longer existing Jakobus altar that used to stand on the site of the Riemenschneider altar .
- The statues of Peter and Paul on the entrance wall are attributed to the Riemenschneider workshop. This is supported by the original installation site in connection with the altar and the stylistic design language.
- A late Gothic winged altar (around 1480/90) in the south aisle, depicting Mary with child between Katharina and Barbara when open and the Annunciation when closed, originally comes from the “Frauhäuschen”, one of the three chapels in the community of Großostheim.
- A late Gothic tabernacle made of sandstone in the choir addresses the resurrection of Christ.
- The red sandstone baptismal font in the east of the south aisle may have been made in the Renaissance style workshop of Hans Junker from Aschaffenburg .
- Baroque furnishings include the high altar (1733) in the choir, two side altars to the left and right of the triumphal arch, the pulpit and some sculptures in both side aisles (Rochus, Valentin, Pietà and once again Petrus and Paulus).
- The treasury contains late Gothic and Baroque monstances, goblets and ciborias.
literature
- Ewald Lang: Catholic parish church of St. Peter and Paul Großostheim. Aschaffenburg district. Diocese of Würzburg (= Art Guide No. 1242, ZDB -ID 51387-8 ). 2nd, revised edition. Schnell & Steiner, Munich et al. 1989.
- Walter Hotz : Riemenschneider's Großostheimer Lamentation. Emig, Amorbach 1956.
Web links
- Early history of the church
- Opinions of Riemenschneider (PDF file; 60 kB)
Coordinates: 49 ° 55 '4 " N , 9 ° 4' 44.7" E